Maternal Mental Health Story Bank Helps Foster Connection, & It's Exactly What New Moms Need By  Ashley Jones I had postpartum depression. Twice. The symptoms manifested differently from my first birth to my second, and long story short, it was much harder to find the proper support from medical professionals the second time around. Maternal mental health (MMH) is a topic that is not new and not rare, but raising awareness about the  maternal mental health disorders , which are the top complication of childbirth, is of the utmost importance. Enter Joy Burkhard, founder of 2020 Mom, who recently launched the  Maternal Mental Health Story Bank , an online resource for moms struggling with MMH disorders. Burkhard's mission to support moms through the most stressful period of their lives is catching fire, and I for one, am completely here for it. To read the full article, click  here .

How Men's Bodies Change When they Become Fathers. Hint: They don’t just get ‘dad bods.’ By   Anna Machin Armando Veve As an anthropologist who studies human fatherhood at the University of Oxford, I’ve run up against a widespread and deeply ingrained belief among fathers: that because their bodies haven’t undergone the myriad biological changes associated with pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding, they’re not as biologically and psychologically “primed” for caretaking as women are. As a result, they feel less confident and question their abilities to parent: Will they be “good” parents? Will they bond with their babies? How will they know what to do? To read the full article, click here .

Viral Photo Of Mom After Giving Birth Has A Powerful Postpartum Message Everyone in the room was focused on the baby, except the photographer. Huffington Post ALEX MICHELE PHOTOGRAPHY Source: www.huffingtonpost.ca A photographer’s raw image of a woman who just gave birth is an important reminder to keep the focus on moms. As everyone in the birthing room was gathered around the new baby,  Florida photographer Alex Michele  captured a picture of the mother. Her  Facebook post of the image  has since gone viral. In her post, Michele encourages people to remember to support the mom, and not just dote on the new baby. “I saw you, mama. I saw the pain in your eyes and in your face and in your body,” Michele wrote in the post. For the full article read here .

Your postpartum body: 9 unexpected things no one warns you of By Wendy Wisner with Care.com A few weeks after my first child was born, I went to take a shower and found that my hair was falling out in handfuls. I ran out soaking wet, telling my husband that something was terribly wrong. Luckily, a Google search (and a call to my doctor) assured me that nothing was wrong — postpartum hair loss is normal and can be attributed to shifting hormones. This was one of many changes to my postpartum body that threw me for a loop. Why didn’t anyone tell me I would essentially be wearing an adult diaper for the first few days of my postpartum recovery? And what about those wild mood swings, where I’d want to bawl one second and feel totally blissed out the next? For the full article read here .